Category: diablo4 necromancer builds

Mistplosion 2.0 Necromancer Build for Diablo IV [A+ Tier Grade]

Mistplosion 2.0 Necromancer BUILD for Diablo IV [A+ Tier Grade]

(Turn to Mist & turn your fallen foes’ corpses into an explosive bloody spectacle. Death is Your Fuel!)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

Diablo IV launched on June 6th, 2023 for PC (Battle.Net), XBOX, & PlayStation) and I’ve had my fair share of playing and testing done. I’m now ready to start making full Builds/Theorycrafts that work for both ‘fresh-into-endgame’ characters as well as late endgame. I’ll evolve & keep them updated when we get major rebalance updates. This is one such build for the Necromancer Class called Mistplosion 2.0.

I’ve also made spreadsheets for my builds (see the links below) that have shortlisted the active and passive skills + legendary aspect + unique item + gems & sockets + suggested stat rolls + paragon boards that work well with the build which you can use to tinker. Alternatively, I’ve added build calculator links (mostly needed for the paragons)

This build will be updated when needed.

Video Version:

Skill Trees

Below you’ll see ONLY the Active & Passive skills that were selected for this build. For additional skills that can be taken + alternative skill options, you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Mistplosion 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Basic Skill (Resource Generator/Builder) (Required Points: 0 )

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Reap – Sweep an ethereal scythe in front of you, dealing 12% (X-?) damage. Hitting an enemy with Reap increases your damage Reduction by 15% for 2 seconds.
Lucky Hit Chance: 17%
Generates: 4 Essence per enemy hit | Damage: Shadow ; Tags: Basic, Darkness
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Reap – If an enemy hit by Reap dies within 2 seconds, you gain 30% attack speed for 3 seconds.
- (2nd upgrade – don’t need any of the 2 but temporary you can use ) Acolyte’s Reap – Reap forms a Corpse under the first enemy hit. Can only occur every 5 seconds.

Core Skill(s) (Resource Spender) (Required Points: 2 )

(active) Blood Surge – Draw blood from enemies, dealing 20% (X-?) damage, and expel a blood nova, dealing 50% (X-?) damage. Blood Surge’s nova damage is increased by 10% (multiplicative) per enemy drained, up to 50% (multiplicative).
Lucky Hit Chance: 20%
Essence Cost: 30 | Damage: Physical ; Tags: Core, Blood
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Blood Surge – Blood Surge heals you for 2.5% of your maximum Life when drawing blood from enemies. If 4 or more enemies are drawn from, then Heal for an additional 1.0% of your Maximum Life.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Paranormal Blood Surge – If an enemy is damaged by Blood Surge’s nova while you are Healthy, then gain 1 stack of Overwhelming Blood. When you have 5 stacks of Overwhelming Blood, your next Blood Surge Overpowers.
(passive) Hewed Flesh – Lucky Hit: Your damage has up to a 4%/8%/12% chance to create a corpse at the target’s location.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Core passives to save points

Macabre Skills (Required Points: 6 )

(active) Corpse Explosion – Detonate a Corpse, dealing 75% (X-XX) damage to nearby enemies. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Damage: Physical ; Tags: Corpse, Corruption
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Corpse – Corpse Explosion’s radius is increased by 15%.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Plagued Corpse Explosion – Corpse Explosion deals 8% (multiplicative) increased damage to enemies that are Slowed, Stunned or Vulnerable. These damage bonuses can stack.

(active) Blood Mist – Disperse into a bloody mist, becoming Immune for 3 seconds. Your Movement Speed is reduced by 20.00% and you periodically deal 2% (X-?) damage to enemies, healing for 0.5% of your Maximum Life.
Lucky Hit Chance: 9%
Cooldown: 20 Seconds. | Damage: Physical ; Tags: Macabre, Blood
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Blood Mist – Casting a Skill that Overpowers reduces the cooldown of Blood Mist by 2 seconds.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Ghastly Blood Mist – Blood Mist leaves behind a Corpse every 1 second.
(passive) Grim Harvest – Consuming a Corpse generates 3/6/9 Essence.
- (upgrade) Fueled by Death – You deal 4%/8%/12% (multiplicative) increased damage for 4 seconds after consuming a Corpse.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Macabre passives to save points

Corruption Skills (Required Points: 11 )

(active) DID NOT TAKE a Corruption active due to using 2 minions on the skillbar
- (1st upgrade)
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2)
(passive) Death’s Embrace – Enemies in melee range take 2%/4%/6% (multiplicative) more damage from you and deal 3%/6%/9% less damage to you.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Corruption passives to save points

Summoning Skills (Required Points: 16 )

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Corpse Tendrils – Veins burst out of a Corpse, pulling in enemies, Stunning them for 3 seconds, and dealing 20% (X-?) damage to them.
Lucky Hit Chance: 20%
Cooldown: 11.0 Seconds. | Damage: Physical ; Tags: Corpse, Corruption
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Corpse Tendrils – Enemies who are in range of Corpse Tendrils are Slowed by 50% before being pulled.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Plagued Corpse Tendrils Enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils are made Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
(passive – only put 1 point into this) Gruesome Mending – While below 50% Life, you receive +10%/+20%/+30% more Healing from all sources.
- (upgrade) Coalesced Blood – While Healthy your Blood Skills deal 6%/12%/18% (multiplicative) increased damage. Note: Need to invest into this node to unlock BOTH Tides of Blood & Drain Vitality
- (upgrade) Transfusion – DID NOT INVEST in this to save points
- (upgrade) Drain Vitality – Lucky Hit: Hitting enemies with Blood Skills has up to 25% chance to Fortify you for 2%/5%/8% Base Life.
- (upgrade) Tides of Blood – Your Blood Skills deal 5%/10%/15% (multiplicative) increased Overpower damage. This bonus is doubled while you are Healthy.
(passive) Necrotic Carapace – When a Corpse is formed from your Skills or your Minions, Fortify for 2%/4%/6% Base Life.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Summoning passives to save points

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

(active) Bone Storm – A swirling storm of bones surrounds you and your Golem, dealing 180% (X-?) to surrounding enemies over 10 seconds.
Lucky Hit Chance: 40%
Cooldown: 60 Seconds. | Damage: Physical ; Tags: Ultimate, Bone
- (1st upgrade) Prime Bone Storm – Your Damage Reduction is increased by 15% while Bone Storm is active.
- (2nd upgrade) Supreme Bone Storm – Your Critical Strike Chance is increased by +20% while Bone Storm is active.
(passive) Stand Alone – Increases Damage Reduction by 6%/12%/18%,, reduced by 2% for each active Minion.
- (upgrade) Memento Mori – Sacrificing both Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages increases their Sacrifice bonuses by 20%/40%/60%.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in any other Ultimate passives to save points

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Rathma’s Vigor – Increase your maximum Life by 10% (multiplicative). After being Healthy for 15 seconds, your next Blood Skill Overpowers.

Book of the Dead (Class Mechanic):

This build is all about creating as many corpses as possible and consuming them with Corpse Explosion directly or with the auto-cast via Blood Mist. For that we don’t need minions. There’s room for a basic skill on the skillbar and many may not want it and might rather prefer to use Decrepify there so it’s up to you to decide on this one. I love using Reap at the beginning of a fight as it’s a guaranteed corpse every (5 seconds) that can be used to start the fight off with a Corpse Tendrils for the crit chance buff & crit damage taken debuff + Vulnerable debuff.

I’d advise taking ZERO Minions for this build. So you’ll & Sacrifice the Skeletal Warriors & Mages + the Golem:

Skeletal Skirmishers: Sacrifice so that we get extra Crit Chance
- Description: Your critical strike chance is increased by 5%, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Warriors.
Bone Mages: Sacrifice is amazing to get our Overpower damage multiplied by x40%. This is a HUGE boost as the majority of the Overpower for this build is additive.
- Description: Your Overpower damage is increased by 40% (multiplicative)
Iron Golem: Sacrifice so that we get extra Crit Damage
- Description: You deal 30% (multiplicative) increased critical strike damage, but you lose the ability to summon a Golem.

Unique Items

Black River (Scythe)

[49 – 63] Intelligence
+[21 – 35]% Damage to Healthy Enemies
+1 Ranks of the Fueled by Death Passive
~~+[2 – 4] Ranks of~~ ~~Corpse Explosion~~ + X% Damage to Distant Enemies

“The scrolls describe a river of tar that separated the living from the land of the dead. Any unfortunate soul who tried to cross would be dragged down into oblivion.” – Notes of Scholar Kamien

Harlequin Crest (Helm)

Gain [5-8%] Damage Reduction. In addition, gain +[2-4] Ranks to All Skills.

[0.245 – 0.455] Maximum Life
X% Cooldown Reduction
+[42 – 70]% Crafting Material Drop Rate
[14 – 28] All Stats

“This headdress was once worn by an assassin disguised as a court mage. Her treachery was unveiled, but not before she used its magic to curse the king’s entire lineage.” – The Fall of House Aston

Sockets & Gems

There are various possible good/viable choices for the gem slots. I’ve shortlisted what works by slot. I’d recommend picking one of those:

Weps: Ruby.
Armor: Ruby or Saphire (dmg reduction apparently is very needed in high tier NM dungeons).
Jewelry: Skull for Armor until they rework resistances. After the rework: Diamond unless you need specific resistance more than all.

XYZ Diamond (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Ultimate Skill Damage
• Armor: +N% Barrier Generation
• Jewelry: N% Resistance to All Elements

+5%/+5%/+5% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Skull (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N Life On Kill
• Armor: +N% Healing Received
• Jewelry: +N Armor

+13/+5%/+170 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Saphire (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Crowd-Controlled Enemies
• Armor: N% Damage Reduction While Fortified
• Jewelry: N% Cold Resistance

+7.5%/5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Ruby (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Overpower Damage
• Armor: +N% Maximum Life
• Jewelry: N% Fire Resistance

+15%/+5.5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Emerald (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
• Armor: +N Thorns
• Jewelry: N% Poison Resistance

+7.5%/+39/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

Legendary Aspects / Powers

I will only list the Legendary Aspects that have been selected for the build and the slots in which I advise putting those. For in-depth information you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Mistplosion 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Helm: Exploiter’s Aspect / Harlequin Crest (see notes below)
Amulet: Aspect of Grasping Veins
Chest: Aspect of The Protector
Pants: Aspect of the Embalmer
Gloves: Blood-bathed Aspect
Boots: Aspect of Explosive Mist
Ring 1: Cadaverous Aspect
Ring 2: Sacrificial Aspect
1H Weapon: Smiting Aspect / Black River (see notes below)
Off-hand: Aspect of Untimely Death
2-H Weapon: Aspect of Grasping Veins OR Cadaverous Aspect OR Sacrificial Aspect BUT I do NOT recommend using a 2-hander as the whole build is centered around the Black River but until you get it you can use a 2-hander and loose one of the offensive aspects

NOTES: How to re-arrange if using any of the Uniques:

- Smiting Aspect stays in the 1-h Weapon slot ONLY until you get the Black River Unique 1-h Scythe. 
- For Harlequin Crest (Helm): Exploiter’s Aspect gets removed from the Helm slot to make room for the Unique Helm.

ALTERNATIVE PICKS (if you decide to use them): 
- For Temerity (Pants): Aspect of The Protector gets removed from the Chest Slot, then Aspect of the Embalmer goes into the now empty Chest slot to make room for the Unique Pants.
- For Mother's Embrace (Ring) in the build, you will need to sacrifice one more aspect and it may be hurting the build to loose any of the remaining aspects once you have the Helmet and 1-h Weapon slots filled up with Uniques. Up to you to decide which on is okay to sacrifice for that Unique ring.

Paragon Boards:

Use the links below to check the paragon boards selected and the nodes I’ve taken. One link is for what the boards will look like at lvl 91 with 185 paragon points (so more paragon points will be obtained on the way to 100). The other link is what the boards will look like when fully maxed out on paragon points.

185/223 Paragon Pts. (~LVL 91 with renown & altar pts): Click THIS LINK
MAX LEVEL & Paragon points spent (223/223): Click THIS LINK

Suggested Gear Rolls to look out for (NOT in order of priority):

I’ve shortlisted 42 different affixes that work well with the build of almost 300 total. I’ll highlight in Orange the ones I think should get higher priority. NOTE: I’ve added a new “Top Priority per Slot” list but left the old unsorted list below it.

This is the Sorted by Slot list of Top Priority Affixes/Rolls:

Helm:
- Priority 1: Cooldown Reduction
- Priority 2: Maximum Life
- Priority 3: Total Armor or Maximum Essence (both are kind of equal priority)
- Priority 4: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Wil, All Stats)
Amulet:
- Priority 1: Cooldown Reduction, Movement Speed
- Priority 2: Maximum Life, +X Ranks of All Corpse/ Macabre Skills, +X% Core Skill Damage, +X% Blood Skill Damage
- Priority 3: +X% Damage, Damage Reduction from Close or Distant Enemies/While Injured,
- Priority 4: Essence Cost Reduction
Chest:
- Priority 1: Damage Reduction from Close or Distant Enemies/while Fortified
- Priority 2: Maximum Life, + X% Damage
- Priority 3: Blood Skill Damage, Core Stats (Int, Dex, Wil, All Stats), Total Armor
- Priority 4: Physical Damage, Fortify Generation, Damage Reduction
Pants:
- Priority 1: +X Ranks of Blood Mist/Corpse Explosion, Damage Reduction from Close or Distant Enemies/while Fortified
- Priority 2: Maximum Life, Damage Reduction while Injured
- Priority 3: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Wil, All Stats), Total Armor
- Priority 4: Damage Reduction
Gloves:
- Priority 1: + X ranks to Blood Surge, Critical Strike Chance, Overpower Damage
- Priority 2: Damage to Injured Enemies, Critical Strike Chance Against Injured Enemies
- Priority 3: Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% Chance to Restore +X% Primary Resource, Lucky Hit Chance
- Priority 4: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Wil, All Stats), Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% Chance to Heal +X Life
Boots:
- Priority 1: Movement Speed, Essence Cost Reduction
- Priority 2: +X Ranks of Corpse Tendrils, Damage Reduction while Injured
- Priority 3: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Wil, All Stats)
- Priority 4: Fortify Generation
Ring 1:
- Priority 1: Overpower Damage, Critical Chance
- Priority 2: Maximum Life, Critical Damage, Vulnerable Damage, Damage to Close/Vulnerable Enemies
- Priority 3: Damage to Stunned Enemies, X% Damage for 4 Seconds After Picking Up a Blood Orb
- Priority 4: Physical Damage, Maximum Essence, Lucky Hit Chance
Ring 2:
- Priority 1: Overpower Damage, Critical Chance
- Priority 2: Maximum Life, Critical Damage, Vulnerable Damage, Damage to Close/Vulnerable Enemies
- Priority 3: Damage to Stunned Enemies, X% Damage for 4 Seconds After Picking Up a Blood Orb
- Priority 4: Physical Damage, Maximum Essence, Lucky Hit Chance
1H Weapon: Apparently, weapons can NOT roll two types of Damage mods!!!
- Priority 1: Damage to Vulnerable Enemies & Vulnerable Damage, Damage to Close Enemies, Overpower Damage
- Priority 2: Critical Strike Damage, Core Skill Damage
- Priority 3: Damage to Slowed/Stunned Enemies
- Priority 4: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Wil, All Stats)
Focus Off-hand | When you use a Focus Off-hand:
- Priority 1: Cooldown Reduction, Essence Cost Reduction
- Priority 2: Critical Strike Chance
- Priority 3: Up to a 5% Chance to Restore +[7 – 14]% Primary Resource , Lucky Hit Chance
- Priority 4: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Wil, All Stats), Damage Reduction while Fortified, Critical Chance Against Injured
Shield Off-hand: When you use a Shield Off-hand:
- Priority 1: Cooldown Reduction, Essence Cost Reduction
- Priority 2: Critical Strike Chance, Damage Reduction while Fortified/from Close or Distant Enemies
- Priority 3: Up to a 5% Chance to Restore +[7 – 14]% Primary Resource , Lucky Hit Chance
- Priority 4: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Wil, All Stats), Critical Chance Against Injured
2-H Weapon: See the 1H Weapon Rolls List

+ X% Damage
Critical Strike Chance/Critical Damage Bonus
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Physical/Blood Skills
Critical Chance/Critical Damage with Core/Blood/Corpse/Corruption/Macabre Skills
Damage with Core/Blood/Corpse/Corruption/Macabre Skills
Lucky Hit Chance
+ X Ranks to Core/Blood/Corpse/Corruption/Macabre Skills
+ X Ranks to Blood Surge/Corpse Explosion/Corpse Tendrils/Blood Mist
Overpower Damage
+ Wilpower, + Dexterity, + Intelligence
+ All Stats
+ Maximum Life
Essence Generation / Regeneration / On Kill
Resource/Essence Cost Reduction
Cooldown Reduction
Blood/Corpse/Corruption/Macabre Skills Cooldown Reduction
Physical/Blood Damage Bonus
Lucky Hit Chance with Physical/Blood Damage
Resistance to All Elements
+ % Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Physical/Blood Damage
+ % Physical/Blood Damage to Elites
+ % Critical Strike Chance with Physical/Blood Damage Against Elites
+ % Damage for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction from Elites
Damage / Critical Chance / Critical Damage Against Close Enemies
Damage / Critical Chance / Critical Damage Against Crowd Controlled Enemies
Vulnerable Damage
Damage / Critical Chance / Critical Damage Against Vulnerable Enemies
Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% chance to Restore +X% Primary Resource
Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% chance to Heal +X Life
Damage while Healthy
Fortify Generation
Damage while Fortified
Chance When Struck to Fortify for X Life
Movement Speed

Higher Priority

Damage vs Injured Enemies
Lucky Hit: Up to a +X% Chance to Execute Injured Non-Elites
Critical Strike Chance Against Injured Enemies
Damage vs Healthy Enemies
Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)
Attack Speed

Lower Priority

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

For all of my Diablo IV Post-Launch & RDY-4-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

For my Diablo IV Class Skill Trees (can be used as mini-calculator): This Spreadsheet

For all of my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

This concludes the Mistplosion 2.0 Necromancer Build for Diablo IV. If you’re interested in the game below are links to the various platforms where one can buy it (you can just click the links to open a new tab):

PC (Battle.Net)

Diablo 4 Necromancer Starter Build Guide Blood Surge 1-50

Diablo 4 Starter Build Guide 😈 Necromancer Blood Surge 1-50

Damn that build has a lot of damage in the leveling progress. I have played a lot of builds and I can really say its very close to the rogue. just not so fast but lets see what we can do in the endgame 😀 After lots of hours testing and tweaking Im happy to present you my blood surge build for the diablo 4 class necromancer. If you want to play without minions try this beast! Youre gonna love it. We are using hemorrhage with lots of attack speed to get our essence fast back and make our skill blood surge the ultimate damage source. The combination of the whole build including Overpower,curses etc feels very good. As you can slow enemies and make em deal less damage to you and your teammates. Once you reach World Tier 3, start putting in the aspect: Blood surges nova echoes again after a short delay, dealing 35% less damage. Its a free cast!!!! Enjoy

GEAR

Essence cost reduction is available here if you can get

BOOK OF THE DEAD

nah we dont need minions or a golem XD

SKILLS

Essence and fortify regenerator hemorrhage

our damage beast blood surge with overpower

What would be a good necro without curse skills?

was not happy with blood wave thats why using bone curse atm

Dr. Bones 2.0 Diablo IV Necromancer Build [RDY-4-Launch]

Dr. Bones 2.0 Necromancer BUILD for Diablo IV [RDY-4-Launch]

(Dr. Bones imprisons & makes their foes vulnerable before showering them with spears & splinters)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

Diablo IV launches on June 6th, 2023 for PC (Battle.Net), XBOX, & PlayStation with a 4 days Early Access (no wipe) for pre-orders (so kind of really launching June 2nd).

Diablo IV‘s Launch is almost upon us and it’s time for some Ready-For-Launch full Builds/Theorycrafts that should be good for both ‘fresh-into-endgame’ characters as well as late endgame. I also plan to evolve them further when the game is released & keep them updated when we get rebalance updates. This is one such build for the Necromancer Class called Dr. Bones 2.0.

I’ve also made spreadsheets for those builds (see the links below) that have shortlisted the active and passive skills + legendary aspect + unique item + gems & sockets + suggested stat rolls + paragon boards that work well with the build which you can use to tinker. Alternatively, I’ve added build calculator links (mostly needed for the paragons)

This build will be updated post-launch to a new & expanded version when I have more in-game information as reference.

Video Version:

Skill Trees

Below you’ll see ONLY the Active & Passive skills that were selected for this build. For additional skills that can be taken + alternative skill options, you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Dr. Bones 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Basic Skill (Resource Generator/Builder) (Required Points: 0 )

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Bone Splinters – Fire 3 bone splinters, dealing 22.5% damage each. Each subsequent time an enemy is hit by the same cast of Bone Splinters, you gain 1 Essence. Each subsequent time an enemy is hit by the same cast of Bone Splinters, you gain 1 Essence. Lucky Hit Chance: 17% Generates: 5 Essence Damage: Physical ; Tags: Basic, Bone
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Bone Splinters – Bone Splinters has a 30% chance to fire 2 additional projectiles if cast while you have 50 or more essence.
- (2nd upgrade) Initiate’s Bone Splinters – Bone Splinters has a 20% chance per hit to make enemies Vulernable for 2 seconds.

Core Skill(s) (Resource Spender) (Required Points: 2 )

(active) Bone Spear – Conjure a bone spear from the ground, dealing 85% (X-?) damage and Piercing through enemies. Lucky Hit Chance: 50% Essence Cost: 25 Damage: Physical ; Tags: Core, Bone
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Bone Spear – Bone Spear breaks into 3 shards when it is destroyed, dealing 10% (X-?) damage each.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Supernatural Bone Spear – Bone Spear makes the first enemy hit Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
(passive) Hewed Flesh – Lucky Hit: Your damage has up to a 4%/8%/12% chance to create a corpse at the target’s location.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Core passives to save points

Macabre Skills (Required Points: 6 )

(active) Corpse Explosion – Detonate a Corpse, dealing 75% (X-XX) damage to nearby enemies. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Damage: Physical ; Tags: Corpse, Corruption
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Corpse – Corpse Explosion’s radius is increased by 15%.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Blighted Corpse Explosion – Corpse Explosion becomes a Darkness Skill and, instead of exploding, releases a vile miasma dealing 110% (X-?) Shadow Damage over 6 seconds.

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Bone Prison – Unearth a prison of bone with X Life that surrounds the target area for 6 seconds. Cooldown: 20 Seconds. Tags: Macabre, Bone
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Bone Prison – If an enemy is trapped by Bone Prison, gain 3 Essence, plus an additional 5 per enemy trapped.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Ghastly Bone Prison – Enemies inside of Bone Prison are Vulnerable.
(passive) Grim Harvest – Consuming a Corpse generates 3/6/9 Essence.
- (upgrade) Fueled by Death – You deal 4%/8%/12% (multiplicative) increased damage for 4 seconds after consuming a Corpse.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Macabre passives to save points

Corruption Skills (Required Points: 11 ) Not taking an Active skill here

(active)
- (1st upgrade)
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2)
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in any Corruption passives to save points

Summoning Skills (Required Points: 16 )

(active – ONLY put 2 points here) Bone Spirit – Consume all of your Essence to conjure a spirit of bone that seeks enemies. Upon reaching an enemy, the spirit explodes, dealing 80% (X-?) damage to the target and all surrounding enemies. Damage is increased by 3% (multiplicative) for each point of Essence spent casting Bone Spirit. Lucky Hit Chance: 33% Cooldown: 12.0 Seconds. Essence Cost: All remaining Essence Damage: Physical ; Tags: Macabre, Bone
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Bone Spirit – If Bone Spirit Critically Strikes, its Cooldown is reduced by 6 seconds. This effect can only happen once per cast.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Dreadful Bone Spirit – After Bone Spirit hits an enemy, you generate 30 Essence over the next 4 seconds.
(passive) Serration – Your Bone Skills have a +0.5%/+1%/+1.5% increased Critical Strike Chance for each 10 Essence you have upon cast
- (upgrade) Rapid Ossification – Every 100 Essence you spend reduces the cooldowns of your Bone Skills by 0.5/1/1.5 seconds.
- (upgrade) Compound – Fracture After Critically Striking 10 times with Bone Skills, your Bone Skills deal 5%/10%/15% (multiplicative) increased damage for 5 seconds.
- (upgrade) Evulsion – Your Bone Skills deal 6%/12%/18% (multiplicative) increased Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable enemies.
(passive) Necrotic Carapace – When a Corpse is formed from your Skills or your Minions, Fortify for 2%/4%/6% Base Life.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Summoning passives to save points

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

(active) Bone Storm – A swirling storm of bones surrounds you and your Golem, dealing 180% (X-?) to surrounding enemies over 10 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Cooldown: 60 Seconds. Damage: Physical ; Tags: Ultimate, Bone
- (1st upgrade) Prime Bone Storm – Your Damage Reduction is increased by 15% while Bone Storm is active.
- (2nd upgrade) Supreme Bone Storm – Your Critical Strike Chance is increased by +20% while Bone Storm is active.
(passive) Stand Alone – Increases Damage Reduction by 6%/12%/18%,, reduced by 2% for each active Minion.
- (upgrade) Memento Mori – Sacrificing both Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages increases their Sacrifice bonuses by 20%/40%/60%.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in any other Ultimate passives to save points

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Ossified Essence – Your Bone Skills deal 1% (multiplicative) increased damage for each point of Essence you have above 50 upon cast.

Book of the Dead (Class Mechanic):

This build is all about creating as many corpses as possible and getting Fortify for each corpse generated, while consuming them with Corpse Explosion. On top of that we can keep spamming Bone Spear as long as we keep consuming the corpses as that gives us Essence. Since the build has a ton of Vulnerable and Crit related bonuses we’re Sacrificing all minions and take such bonuses for Sacrificing our Minions as well.

I’d advise taking Zero Minions for this build & Sacrifice the Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages, & Golem. The types sacrifices are:

Skeletal Skirmishers: Sacrifice so that we get extra Crit Chance
- Description: Your critical strike chance is increased by 5%, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Warriors.
Cold Mages: Sacrifice is amazing to get extra DMG to Vulnerable enemies
- Description: You deal 15% (multiplicative) increased damage to Vulnerable enemies, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Mages.
Iron Golem: Sacrifice so that we get extra Crit Damage
- Description: You deal 30% (multiplicative) increased critical strike damage, but you lose the ability to summon a Golem.

Unique Item:

In Diablo IV apparently (I have multiple sources that confirmed this) we can equip more than one unique item at the same time (not so ‘unique’ if we can get decked out in full uniques I guess). It seems that the one unique per build idea that Unique inherited from the Mythical gear they supposedly replaced was scrapped even before the closed beta tests. My top pick will be the following one but check the notes under the Aspects list for some additional picks:

Deathless Visage (Helm)

Bone Spear leaves behind echoes as it travels that explode, dealing N damage.

+[0.031 – 0.073] Armor
+[0.07 – 0.14] Physical Damage
+[14 – 21]% Critical Strike Damage
+[16 – 24] Maximum Essence

“Rathma is endless. He was the first Ancient, and will remain at the end. He is the master of the Great Cycle of Being. When Death comes for him, why should he fear it?” – Vauntus, Acolyte of Rathma

Sockets & Gems

There are various possible good/viable choices for the gem slots. I’ve shortlisted what works by slot. I’d recommend picking one of those:

Weps: Emerald, Amethyst, Diamond, Saphire, Ruby, or Skull.
Armor: Ruby, Saphire or Skull.
Jewelry: Diamond unless you need specific resistance more than all.

XYZ Diamond (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Ultimate Skill Damage
• Armor: +N% Barrier Generation
• Jewelry: N% Resistance to All Elements

+5%/+5%/5 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Skull (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N Life On Kill
• Armor: +N% Healing Received
• Jewelry: +N Armor

+13/+5%/+170 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Amethyst (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Damage Over Time
• Armor: N% Damage Taken Over Time Reduction
• Jewelry: N% Shadow Resistance

+5%/+8.2%/+14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Ruby (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Overpower Damage
• Armor: +N% Maximum Life
• Jewelry: N% Fire Resistance

+15%/+5.5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Emerald (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
• Armor: +N Thorns
• Jewelry: N% Poison Resistance

+7.5%/39/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Saphire (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Crowd-Controlled Enemies
• Armor: N% Damage Reduction While Fortified
• Jewelry: N% Cold Resistance

+7.5%/5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

Legendary Aspects / Powers

I will only list the Legendary Aspects that have been selected for the build and the slots in which I advise putting those. For in-depth information you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Dr. Bones 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Helm: Aspect of The Protector / Deathless Visage OR Harlequin Crest (see notes below)
Amulet: Aspect of Serration
Chest: Aspect of Shielding Storm / Blood Artisan’s Cuirass (see notes below)
Pants: Aspect of the Embalmer
Gloves: Osseous Gale Aspect
Boots: Exploiter’s Aspect
Ring 1: Aspect of Ultimate Shadow
Ring 2: Aspect of Exposed Flesh / Splintering Aspect (see notes below)
1H Weapon: Splintering Aspect / Black River (see notes below)
Off-hand: Aspect of Swelling Curse / Aspect of Shielding Storm (see notes below)
2-H Weapon (if you decide to use one): Splintering Aspect (see notes below)

NOTE 1: Aspect of The Protector goes in the Helm slot ONLY until you get the Deathless Visage Unique Helm.
There are three other alternative picks for Uniques you could use if you get those first: Blood Artisan's Cuirass (Chest Armor), Harlequin Crest (Helm), & Black River (Scythe)
See the notes below for more info:

NOTE 2: How to re-arrange if using any of the alternative Uniques:
- For Blood Artisan's Cuirass (Chest Armor): Aspect of Swelling Curse gets removed from the Off-hand slot. You also need to remove the offensive Off-hand and replace it with a Shield off-hand. Aspect of Shielding Storm goes in the newly equipped Shield Off-hand to make room for the Unique Chest Armor.
- For Harlequin Crest (Helm): Aspect of The Protector gets removed from the Helm slot to make room for the Unique Helm.
- For Black River (Scythe): Aspect of Exposed Flesh gets removed from the Ring 2 slot & Splintering Aspect replaces it to make room for the Unique Scythe.

Paragon Boards:

Use the links below to check the paragon boards selected and the nodes I’ve taken. One link is for what the boards will look like at lvl 90 without any paragon points from renown (so more paragon points will be obtained on the way to 100 as well as from renown). The other link will be what the boards will look like when fully maxed out on paragon points.

LVL 90 & no Points from renown: Click THIS LINK
MAXed out points (1 spare point left): Click THIS LINK

Suggested Gear Rolls to look out for (NOT in complete order of priority):

I’ve shortlisted 44 different affixes that work well with the build of almost 300 total. I’ll highlight in Orange the ones I think should get higher priority

Bonus to All Damage
Critical Strike Chance / Critical Damage Bonus
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Shadow/Physical/Darkness/Bone Skills
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Core/Macabre/Corpse/Basic/Ultimate Skills
Damage with Core/Macabre/Corpse/Corruption/Basic/Ultimate Skills
Lucky Hit Chance
+ X Ranks to Bone Spear/Corpse Explosion/Bone Storm/Bone Spirit/Bone Prison
+ X Ranks to Core/Macabre/Corpse/Corruption/Basic Skills
Lucky Hit Chance with Shadow/Physical Damage
Shadow/Physical Damage Bonus
+ % Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Shadow/Physical Damage
Resistance to All Elements
+ % Shadow/Physical Damage to Elites
+ % Critical Strike Chance with Shadow/Physical Damage Against Elites
+ % Damage for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction from Elites
Damage / Critical Chance / Critical Damage Against Close Enemies
Damage / Critical Chance / Critical Damage Against Crowd Controlled Enemies
Vulnerable Damage
Damage / Critical Chance / Critical Damage Against Vulnerable Enemies
Fortify Generation
Damage while Fortified
Chance When Struck to Fortify for X Life
+ % Damage Over Time
+ % Shadow Damage Over Time
+ % Shadow Damage Over Time Duration
Overpower Chance
Overpower Damage with Bone Spear/Corpse Explosion/Bone Storm/Bone Spirit/Bone Prison
Overpower Damage with Core/Bone/Darkness/Macabre/Corpse/Basic/Ultimate Skills
Damage to Slowed/Stunned/Immobilized Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Slowed/Stunned/Immobilized Enemies

Higher Priority

+ All Stats
Damage while Healthy
Damage vs Healthy Enemies
Damage vs Injured Enemies
Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)
Essence Generation
Essence Regeneration
Essence On Kill
Movement Speed
Attack Speed
Intelligence
Resource Cost Reduction

Lower Priority

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

For all of my Diablo IV RDY-4-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

For my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Class Skill Trees (can be used as mini-calculator): This Spreadsheet

For all of my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

This concludes the Dr. Bones 2.0 Necromancer Build for Diablo IV. If you’re interested in the game below are links to the various platforms where one can buy it (you can just click the links to open a new tab):

PC (Battle.Net)

Hemomancer 2.0 Diablo IV Necromancer Build [RDY-4-Launch]

Hemomancer 2.0 Necromancer BUILD for Diablo IV [RDY-4-Launch]

(the Hemomancer boils the blood of their foes & consumes their flesh to keep themselves Healthy & Fortified)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

Diablo IV launches on June 6th, 2023 for PC (Battle.Net), XBOX, & PlayStation with a 4 days Early Access (no wipe) for pre-orders (so kind of really launching June 2nd).

Diablo IV‘s Launch is getting closer and it’s time to make some Ready-For-Launch full Builds/Theorycrafts that should be good for both ‘fresh-into-endgame’ characters as well as late endgame. I also plan to evolve them further when the game is released & keep them updated when we get rebalance updates. This is one such build for the Necromancer Class called Hemomancer 2.0.

This build will be updated post-launch to a new & expanded version when I have more in-game information as reference.

Video Version:

Skill Trees

Below you’ll see ONLY the Active & Passive skills that were selected for this build. For additional skills that can be taken + alternative skill options, you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Hemomancer 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Basic Skill (Resource Generator/Builder) (Required Points: 0 )

(active) Hemorrhage – Burst an enemy’s blood, dealing 25% (X-XX) damage. Hemorrhage has 20% chance to form a Blood Orb. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Generates: 7 Essence Damage: Physical ; Tags: Basic, Blood
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Hemorrhage – After picking up a Blood Orb, your next Hemorrhage also hits nearby enemies and grants 2 additional essence per enemy hit
- (2nd upgrade) Initiate’s Hemorrhage – Hemorrhage grants 1.6% Base Life as Fortify each time it hits an enemy, and has a 1.5% chance per enemy hit to Fortify you for 100% Base Life.

Core Skill(s) (Resource Spender) (Required Points: 2 )

(active) Blood Lance – Throw a blood lance that lingers in an enemy for 3 econd, dealing 45% (X-?) damage to the enemy and all other lanced enemies. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Essence Cost: 25 Damage: Physical ; Tags: Core, Blood
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Blood Lance – Blood Lance Pierces through enemies who are currently lanced, dealing 15% reduced damage to subsequent enemies after the first.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Supernatural Blood Lance – After casting Blood Lance 8 times, your next cast of Blood Lance is guaranteed to Overpower and spawns a Blood Orb under the first enemy hit.
(passive) Hewed Flesh – Lucky Hit: Your damage has up to a 4%/8%/12% chance to create a corpse at the target’s location.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Core passives to save points

Macabre Skills (Required Points: 6 )

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Blood Mist – Disperse into a bloody mist, becoming Immune for 3 seconds. Your Movement Speed is reduced by 20.00% and you periodically deal 2% (X-?) damage to enemies, healing for 0.5% of your Maximum Life. Lucky Hit Chance: 9% Cooldown: 20 Seconds. Damage: Physical ; Tags: Macabre, Blood
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Blood Mist – Casting a Skill that Overpowers reduces the cooldown of Blood Mist by 2 seconds.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Dreadful Blood Mist – Blood Mist Fortifies you for 0.5% Base Life each time it hits an enemy.
(passive) Grim Harvest – Consuming a Corpse generates 3/6/9 Essence.
- (upgrade) Fueled by Death – You deal 4%/8%/12% (multiplicative) increased damage for 4 seconds after consuming a Corpse.
(passive) Skeletal Warrior Mastery – Increase the damage and Life of your Skeletal Warriors by 15%/30%/45% (multiplicative).
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Macabre passives to save points

Corruption Skills (Required Points: 11 ) Not taking an Active skill here

(active)
- (1st upgrade)
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2)
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in any Corruption passives to save points

Summoning Skills (Required Points: 16 )

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Corpse Tendrils – Veins burst out of a Corpse, pulling in enemies, Stunning them for 3 seconds, and dealing 20% (X-?) damage to them. Lucky Hit Chance: 20% Cooldown: 11.0 Seconds. Damage: Physical ; Tags: Corpse, Corruption
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Corpse Tendrils – Enemies who are in range of Corpse Tendrils are Slowed by 50% before being pulled.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Plagued Corpse Tendrils – Enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils are made Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
(passive – ONLY put 1 point here) Gruesome Mending – While below 50% Life, you receive +10%/+20%/+30% more Healing from all sources.
- (upgrade) Coalesced Blood – While Healthy your Blood Skills deal 6%/12%/18% (multiplicative) increased damage. Note: Need to invest into this node to unlock BOTH Tides of Blood & Drain Vitality
- (upgrade – ONLY put 1 point here) Transfusion – Blood Orbs also heal your Minions for 15%/30%/45% of the amount. Note: Unlike Coalesced Blood, this node is only connected to Tides of Blood
- (upgrade) Drain Vitality – Lucky Hit: Hitting enemies with Blood Skills has up to 25% chance to Fortify you for 2%/5%/8% Base Life.
- (upgrade) Tides of Blood – Your Blood Skills deal 5%/10%/15% (multiplicative) increased Overpower damage. This bonus is doubled while you are Healthy.
(passive) Necrotic Carapace – When a Corpse is formed from your Skills or your Minions, Fortify for 2%/4%/6% Base Life.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Summoning passives to save points

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

(active) Blood Wave – Conjure a tidal wave of blood that deals 90% (X-?) damage and knocks enemies back. Lucky Hit Chance: 30% Cooldown: 50 Seconds. Damage: Physical ; Tags: Ultimate, Blood
- (1st upgrade) Prime Blood Wave – Blood Wave Slows enemies by 50% for 4 seconds.
- (2nd upgrade) Supreme Blood Wave – Blood Wave leaves behind 3 Blood Orbs as it travels.
(passive) Bonded in Essence – Every 5 seconds, your Skeletal Priest’s Healing will Heal your skeletons for 20%/40%/60% of their Maximum Life.
- (upgrade) Death’s Defense – Your Minions can’t lose more than 75%/50%/25% of their maximum Life from a single damage instance.
- (upgrade) Inspiring Leader – After you have been Healthy for at least 4 seconds, you and your Minions gain +4%/+8%/+12% Attack Speed. (seems to need a point in Death’s Defence to unlock this)
  - (upgrade) Hellbent Commander – Your Minions deal 10%/20%/30% (multiplicative) increased damage while you are near them.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in any other Ultimate passives to save points

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Rathma’s Vigor – Increase your maximum Life by 10%. After being Healthy for 15 seconds, your next Blood Skill Overpowers.

Book of the Dead (Class Mechanic):

This build is all about creating as many corpses as possible and getting Fortify for each corpse generated. On top of that we can keep spamming Blood Lance as long as we keep consuming the corpses as that gives us Essence. For that reason we take the Corpse generation & Fortify bonuses for our Minions.

I’d advise taking one Minion Type for this build & Sacrificing the other. I prefer using the Skeletal Warriors & Skeletal Mages, while scrapping the & Golem. The types + sacrifices are:

Skeletal Reapers: Upgrade 2for that extra Corpse generation
- Description: Reapers have a 10% chance to carve the flesh off enemies, forming a corpse. This cannot happen on the same enemy more than once every 5 seconds.
Bone Mages: Upgrade 2 is amazing to keep granting us Fortify
- Description: Each time a Bone Mage dies from its own attack, they leave behind a corpse and Fortify you for X.
Iron Golem: Sacrifice so that we get extra Crit Damage
- Description: You deal 30% (multiplicative) increased critical strike damage, but you lose the ability to summon a Golem.

Unique Item

Ring of Starless Skies (Ring)

[6 – 35]% Lightning Resistance
[6 – 35]% Shadow Resistance

Each consecutive Core Skill cast reduces the Resource cost of your next Core Skill by [5 – 10]%, up to a maximum of 30%.

[10 – 18] All Stats
+[4 – 10]% Lucky Hit Chance
+[9.5 – 16.5]% Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
+[12.5 – 19.5]% Core Skill Damage

“Yours is the power to pluck the stars from the heavens with the ease of a child gathering fruit from the bough.” – Unknown

Sockets & Gems

There are various possible good/viable choices for the gem slots. I’ve shortlisted what works by slot. I’d recommend picking one of those:

Weps: Weps: Emerald, Saphire, Ruby, Diamond, or Skull.
Armor: Ruby, Skull, or Saphire.
Jewelry: Diamond unless you need specific resistance more than all.

XYZ Diamond (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Ultimate Skill Damage
• Armor: +N% Barrier Generation
• Jewelry: N% Resistance to All Elements

+5%/+5%/5 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Skull (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N Life On Kill
• Armor: +N% Healing Received
• Jewelry: +N Armor

+13/+5%/+170 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Ruby (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Overpower Damage
• Armor: +N% Maximum Life
• Jewelry: N% Fire Resistance

+15%/+5.5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Emerald (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
• Armor: +N Thorns
• Jewelry: N% Poison Resistance

+7.5%/39/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

Legendary Aspects / Powers

I will only list the Legendary Aspects that have been selected for the build and the slots in which I advise putting those. For in-depth information you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Hemomancer 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Helm:Aspect of Might / Harlequin Crest (see notes below)
Amulet: Smiting Aspect / Melted Heart of Selig (see notes below)
Chest: Viscous Aspect
Pants: Aspect of the Embalmer / Temerity (see notes below)
Gloves: Aspect of Rathma’s Chosen
Boots: Exploiter’s Aspect
Ring 1: Aspect of Grasping Veins
Ring 2: Blood Seeker’s Aspect / Ring of Starless Skies (see notes below)
1H Weapon: Aspect of Hungry Blood
Off-hand: Cadaverous Aspect
2-H Weapon (if you decide to use one): Aspect of Hungry Blood

NOTE 1: Blood Seeker's Aspect goes in the Ring slot ONLY until you get the Ring of Starless Skies Unique Ring.
There are three other alternative picks for Uniques you could use if you get those first: Melted Heart of Selig (Amulet), Harlequin Crest (Helm), & Temerity (Pants)
See the notes below for more info:

NOTE 2: How to re-arrange if using any of the alternative Uniques:
- For Melted Heart of Selig (Amulet): Smiting Aspect gets removed from the Amulet slot to make room for the Unique Amulet
- For Harlequin Crest (Helm): Aspect of Might gets removed from the Helm slot to make room for the Unique Helm.
- For Temerity (Pants): Aspect of the Embalmer gets removed from the Ring 2 slot to make room for the Unique Pants.

Paragon Boards:

Use the links below to check the paragon boards selected and the nodes I’ve taken. One link is for what the boards will look like at lvl 89 without any paragon points from renown (so more paragon points will be obtained on the way to 100 as well as from renown). The other link will be what the boards will look like when fully maxed out on paragon points.

LVL 89 & no Points from renown: Click THIS LINK
MAXed out points: Click THIS LINK

Suggested Gear Rolls to look out for (NOT in complete order of priority):

I’ve shortlisted 44 different affixes that work well with the build of almost 300 total. I’ll highlight in Orange the ones I think should get higher priority

Bonus to All Damage
Critical Strike Chance / Critical Damage Bonus
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Blood/Physical Skills
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Core/Macabre/Corpse/Corruption/Basic/Ultimate Skills
Damage with Core/Macabre/Corpse/Corruption/Basic/Ultimate Skills
Lucky Hit Chance
+ X Ranks to Blood Lance/Hemorrhage/Blood Wave/Blood Mist/Corpse Tendrils
+ X Ranks to Core/Macabre/Corpse/Corruption/Basic Skills
Lucky Hit Chance with Blood/Physical Damage
Blood/Physical Damage Bonus
+ % Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Blood/Physical Damage
Resistance to All Elements
+ % Blood/Physical Damage to Elites
+ % Critical Strike Chance with Blood/Physical Damage Against Elites
+ % Damage for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction from Elites
Damage to Close Enemies
Critical Chance / Critical Damage Against Close Enemies
Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Critical Chance / Critical Damage Against Crowd Controlled Enemies
Vulnerable Damage
Critical Chance / Critical Damage Against Vulnerable Enemies
Fortify Generation
Damage while Fortified
Chance When Struck to Fortify for X Life
Overpower Chance
Overpower Damage with Blood Lance/Hemorrhage/Blood Wave/Blood Mist/Bone Storm
Overpower Damage with Core/Blood/Macabre/Corpse/Corruption/Basic/Ultimate Skills
Damage to Slowed/Stunned/Immobilized Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Slowed/Stunned/Immobilized Enemies
Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes From Your Minions Have up to a 5% Chance to Reduce Enemy Damage Dealt by X% for N Seconds

Higher Priority

+ All Stats
Damage while Healthy
Damage vs Healthy Enemies
Damage vs Injured Enemies
Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)
Essence Generation
Essence Regeneration
Essence On Kill
Movement Speed
Attack Speed
Intelligence
Resource Cost Reduction

Lower Priority

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

For all of my Diablo IV RDY-4-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

For my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Class Skill Trees (can be used as mini-calculator): This Spreadsheet

For all of my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

This concludes the Hemomancer 2.0 Necromancer Build for Diablo IV. If you’re interested in the game below are links to the various platforms where one can buy it (you can just click the links to open a new tab):

PC (Battle.Net)

Dark Lord 2.0 Diablo IV Necromancer Build [RDY-4-Launch]

Dark Lord 2.0 Necromancer BUILD for Diablo IV [RDY-4-Launch]

(the Dark Lord emerge from the shadows to curse his foes & engulf the battlefield in darkness)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

Diablo IV launches on June 6th, 2023 for PC (Battle.Net), XBOX, & PlayStation with a 4 days Early Access (no wipe) for pre-orders (so kind of really launching June 2nd).

This build will be updated post-launch to a new & expanded version when I have more in-game information as reference.

Video Version:

Skill Trees

Below you’ll see ONLY the Active & Passive skills that were selected for this build. For additional skills that can be taken + alternative skill options, you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Dark Lord 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Basic Skill (Resource Generator/Builder) (Required Points: 0 ) Only used temporarily

(active) Reap – Sweep an ethereal scythe in front of you, dealing 12% (X-?) damage. Hitting an enemy with Reap increases your damage Reduction by 15% for 2 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 17% Generates: 4 Essence per enemy hit Damage: Shadow ; Tags: Basic, Darkness
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Reap – If an enemy hit by Reap dies within 2 seconds, you gain 30% attack speed for 3 seconds.
- (2nd upgrade – don’t need any of the 2 but temporary you can use ) Acolyte’s Reap – Reap forms a Corpse under the first enemy hit. Can only occur every 5 seconds.

Core Skill(s) (Resource Spender) (Required Points: 2 )

(active) Blight – Unleash concentrated blight that deals 30% (X-?) damage and leaves behind a defiled area, dealing 80% (X) damage over 6 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Essence Cost: 25 Damage: Shadow ; Tags: Core, Darkness
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Blight – Blight Slows enemies by 25%
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Paranormal Blight – Blight has a 30% (multiplicative) chance to Immobilize for 1.5 seconds on impact.
(passive) Hewed Flesh – Lucky Hit: Your damage has up to a 4%/8%/12% chance to create a corpse at the target’s location.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Core passives to save points

Macabre Skills (Required Points: 6 )

(active) Corpse Explosion – Detonate a Corpse, dealing 75% (X-XX) damage to nearby enemies. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Damage: Physical ; Tags: Corpse, Corruption
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Corpse – Corpse Explosion’s radius is increased by 15%.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Blighted Corpse Explosion – Corpse Explosion becomes a Darkness Skill and, instead of exploding, releases a vile miasma dealing 110% (X-?) Shadow Damage over 6 seconds.
(passive) Grim Harvest – Consuming a Corpse generates 3/6/9 Essence.
- (upgrade) Fueled by Death – You deal 4%/8%/12% (multiplicative) increased damage for 4 seconds after consuming a Corpse.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Macabre passives to save points

Corruption Skills (Required Points: 11 )

(active) Decrepify – Curse the target area. Enemies afflicted by Decrepify are Slowed by 40% and deal 20% less damage for 10 seconds. Essence Cost: 10 Damage: Physical ; Tags: Curse, Corruption
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Decrepify – Lucky Hit: Enemies hit while afflicted with Decrepify have up to a 10% chance to Stunned them for 2 seconds.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Abhorent Decrepify – Lucky Hit: Enemies hit while afflicted with Decrepify have up to a 15% chance to reduce your Active Cooldowns by 1.0 seconds.

(active – ONLY investing 1 point here and ONLY in the skill, NOT the upgrades) Iron Maiden – Curse the target area. Enemies afflicted by Iron Maiden take 10% (X-?) damage each time they deal direct damage. Lasts 10 seconds. Essence Cost: 10 Damage: Physical ; Tags: Curse, Corruption
- (1st upgrade) did not take
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) did not take
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in any Corruption passives to save points

Summoning Skills (Required Points: 16 )

(active) Corpse Tendrils – Veins burst out of a Corpse, pulling in enemies, Stunning them for 3 seconds, and dealing 20% (X-?) damage to them. Lucky Hit Chance: 20% Cooldown: 11.0 Seconds. Damage: Physical ; Tags: Corpse, Corruption
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Corpse Tendrils – Enemies who are in range of Corpse Tendrils are Slowed by 50% before being pulled.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Plagued Corpse Tendrils – Enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils are made Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
(passive – ONLY put 1 point into this) Reaper’s Pursuit – Damaging enemies with Darkness Skills increases your Movement Speed by +5%/+10%/+15% for 3 seconds.
- (upgrade – ONLY put 2 points into this) Crippling Darkness – Lucky Hit: Darkness Skills have up to a 15% chance to Stun for 1/2/3 seconds.
- (upgrade) Gloom – When you damage enemies with Darkness Skills, they take 2%/4%/6% (multiplicative) increased Shadow Damage from you and your Minions for 2 seconds, stacking up to 3 times.
- (upgrade) Terror – Darkness Skills deal 3%/6%/9% (multiplicative) bonus damage to enemies who are Slowed, and 3%/6%/9% (multiplicative) bonus damage to enemies who are Stunned or Immobilized. These bonuses stack and apply to Shadow Damage dealt by your Minions.
(passive – ONLY put 1 point into this) Serration – Your Bone Skills have a +0.5%/+1%/+1.5% increased Critical Strike Chance for each 10 Essence you have upon cast
- (upgrade) Rapid Ossification – DID NOT Take this
- (upgrade) Compound – Fracture After Critically Striking 10 times with Bone Skills, your Bone Skills deal 5%/10%/15% (multiplicative) increased damage for 5 seconds.
- (upgrade) Evulsion – DID NOT Take this
(passive) Necrotic Carapace – When a Corpse is formed from your Skills or your Minions, Fortify for 2%/4%/6% Base Life.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Summoning passives to save points

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

(active) Bone Storm – A swirling storm of bones surrounds you and your Golem, dealing 180% (X-?) to surrounding enemies over 10 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Cooldown: 60 Seconds. Damage: Physical ; Tags: Ultimate, Bone
- (1st upgrade) Prime Bone Storm – Your Damage Reduction is increased by 15% while Bone Storm is active.
- (2nd upgrade) Supreme Bone Storm – Your Critical Strike Chance is increased by +20% while Bone Storm is active.
(passive) Stand Alone – Increases Damage Reduction by 6%/12%/18%,, reduced by 2% for each active Minion.
- (upgrade) Memento Mori – Sacrificing both Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages increases their Sacrifice bonuses by 20%/40%/60%.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in any other Ultimate passives to save points

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Shadowblight – Darkness Skills infect enemies with Shadowblight for 2 seconds. You and your Minions deal 10% (multiplicative) bonus damage to enemies affected by Shadowblight.

Book of the Dead (Class Mechanic):

This build is all about creating as many corpses as possible and consuming them with Corpse Explosion directly or with the auto-cast via Blood Mist. For that we don’t need minions as much. However, there’s no room for a basics kill on the skillbar so we’ll use Cold Mages to generate essence in case there are no corpses nearby to consume for essence.

I’d advise taking Zero Minions for this build & Sacrifice the Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages, & Golem. The types sacrifices are:

Skeletal Skirmishers: Sacrifice so that we get extra Crit Chance
- Description: Your critical strike chance is increased by 5%, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Warriors.
Cold Mages: Sacrifice is amazing to get extra DMG to Vulnerable enemies
- Description: You deal 15% (multiplicative) increased damage to Vulnerable enemies, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Mages.
Iron Golem: Sacrifice so that we get extra Crit Damage
- Description: You deal 30% (multiplicative) increased critical strike damage, but you lose the ability to summon a Golem.

Unique Item

Black River (Scythe)

[0.06] Life On Kill

Corpse Explosion consumes up to 4 additional Corpses around the initial Corpse, dealing x[N] increased damage and with a +[X%] larger radius per additional Corpse.

[49 – 63] Intelligence
+[21 – 35]% Damage to Healthy Enemies
+1 Ranks of the Fueled by Death Passive
+[2 – 4] Ranks of Corpse Explosion

“The scrolls describe a river of tar that separated the living from the land of the dead. Any unfortunate soul who tried to cross would be dragged down into oblivion.” – Notes of Scholar Kamien

Sockets & Gems

There are various possible good/viable choices for the gem slots. I’ve shortlisted what works by slot. I’d recommend picking one of those:

Weps: Amethyst, Diamond, Saphire, Skull, Ruby, or Emerald.
Armor: Ruby, Skull, or Saphire.
Jewelry: Diamond unless you need specific resistance more than all.

XYZ Diamond (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Ultimate Skill Damage
• Armor: +N% Barrier Generation
• Jewelry: N% Resistance to All Elements

+5%/+5%/5 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Skull (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N Life On Kill
• Armor: +N% Healing Received
• Jewelry: +N Armor

+13/+5%/+170 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Ruby (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Overpower Damage
• Armor: +N% Maximum Life
• Jewelry: N% Fire Resistance

+15%/+5.5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Emerald (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
• Armor: +N Thorns
• Jewelry: N% Poison Resistance

+7.5%/39/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

Legendary Aspects / Powers

I will only list the Legendary Aspects that have been selected for the build and the slots in which I advise putting those. For in-depth information you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Dark Lord 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Helm: Exploiter’s Aspect
Amulet: Blighted Aspect or Aspect of Grasping Veins (whichever you want to get the 50% boost, the other one goes in the 2nd Ring Slot)
Chest: Aspect of the Embalmer
Pants: Aspect of Shielding Storm
Gloves: Aspect of Ultimate Shadow
Boots: Aspect of The Void
Ring 1: Aspect of Decay
Ring 2: Blighted Aspect or Aspect of Grasping Veins (whichever of the two you did not put in the Amulet goes here)
1H Weapon: *Smiting Aspect Until The Unique goes here (see notes below)
Off-hand: Aspect of The Damned
2-H Weapon (if you decide to use one): *Smiting Aspect Until The Unique goes in he 1h slot (see notes below)

NOTE: Smiting Aspect goes in the 1H Weapon slot ONLY until you get the Black River Unique Scythe.
There are two other alternative picks for Uniques you could use if you get those first: Melted Heart of Selig (Amulet) & Harlequin Crest (Helm)

NOTE 2: How to re-arrange if using any of the alternative Uniques:
- For Melted Heart of Selig (Amulet): Smiting Aspect gets removed from the 1H Weapon slot and Blighted Aspect or Aspect of Grasping Veins (whichever you put in the Amulet) goes in the now empty 1H Weapon slot to make room for the Unique to go in the Amulet slot
- For Harlequin Crest (Helm): Smiting Aspect gets removed from the 1H Weapon slot. Aspect of Ultimate Shadow goes in the now empty 1H Weapon slot. Then Exploiter’s Aspect goes in the now empty Gloves slot to make room for the Unique to go in the Helmet slot.

Paragon Boards:

Use the links below to check the paragon boards selected and the nodes I’ve taken. One link is for what the boards will look like at lvl 93 without any paragon points from renown (so more paragon points will be obtained on the way to 100 as well as from renown. The other link will be what the boards will look like when fully maxed out on paragon points.

LVL 93 & no Points from renown: Click THIS LINK
MAXed out points: Click THIS LINK

Suggested Gear Rolls to look out for (NOT in complete order of priority):

I’ve shortlisted 46 different affixes that work well with the build of almost 300 total. I’ll highlight in Orange the ones I think should get higher priority

Bonus to All Damage
Critical Strike Chance / Critical Damage Bonus
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Darkness/Shadow/Corpse/Bone/Physical Skills
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Core/Macabre/Corpse/Ultimate Skills
Damage with Core/Macabre/Corpse/Ultimate Skills
Lucky Hit Chance
Damage with Core/Macabre/Corpse/Ultimate Skills
Lucky Hit Chance with Darkness/Shadow/Bone/Physical Damage
Darkness/Shadow/Bone/Physical Damage Bonus
+ % Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Darkness/Shadow/Bone/Physical Damage
Resistance to All Elements
+ % Darkness/Shadow/Bone/Physical Damage to Elites
+ % Critical Strike Chance with Darkness/Shadow/Bone/Physical Damage Against Elites
+ % Damage for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction from Elites
Damage to Close Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Close Enemies
Critical Strike Damage to Close Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Crowd Controlled Enemies
Critical Strike Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Vulnerable Enemies
Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
Vulnerable Damage
Fortify Generation
Damage while Fortified
Chance When Struck to Fortify for X Life
Overpower Chance
Overpower Damage with Blight/Corpse Explosion/Bone Storm
Overpower Damage with Core/Macabre/Ultimate/Darkness/Corpse/Bone Skills
Damage to Slowed/Stunned/Immobilized Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Slowed/Stunned/Immobilized Enemies

Higher Priority

+ All Stats
Damage while Healthy
Damage vs Healthy Enemies
Damage vs Injured Enemies
Damage vs Close Enemies
Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)
Essence Generation
Essence Regeneration
Essence On Kill
Movement Speed
Attack Speed
Intelligence
Resource Cost Reduction

Lower Priority

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

For all of my Diablo IV RDY-4-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

For my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Class Skill Trees (can be used as mini-calculator): This Spreadsheet

For all of my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

This concludes the Dark Lord 2.0 Necromancer Build for Diablo IV. If you’re interested in the game below are links to the various platforms where one can buy it (you can just click the links to open a new tab):

PC (Battle.Net)

Mistplosion Diablo IV Necromancer Build [RDY-4-Launch]

Mistplosion Necromancer BUILD for Diablo IV [RDY-4-Launch]

(Turn to Mist & turn your fallen foes’ corpses into an explosive bloody spectacle. Death is Your Fuel!)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

Diablo IV launches on June 6th, 2023 for PC (Battle.Net), XBOX, & PlayStation with a 4 days Early Access (no wipe) for pre-orders (so kind of really launching June 2nd).

Diablo IV‘s Launch is getting closer and it’s time to make some Ready-For-Launch full Builds/Theorycrafts that should be good for both ‘fresh-into-endgame’ characters as well as late endgame. I’ also plan to evolve them further when the game is released & keep them updated when we get rebalance updates. This is one such build for the Necromancer Class called Mistplosion.

I’ve also made spreadsheets for those builds (see the links below) that have shortlisted the active and passive skills + legendary aspect + unique item + gems & sockets + suggested stat rolls + paragon boards that work well with the build which you can use to tinker. Alternatively, i’ve added build calculator links (mostly needed for the paragons)

This build will be updated post-launch to a new & expanded version when I have more in-game information as reference.

Video Version:

Skill Trees

Basic Skill (Resource Generator/Builder) (Required Points: 0 ) Only used temporarily

(active) Hemorrhage – Burst an enemy’s blood, dealing 25% (X-XX) damage. Hemorrhage has 20% chance to form a Blood Orb. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Generates: 7 Essence Damage: Physical ; Tags: Basic, Blood
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Hemorrhage – After picking up a Blood Orb, your next Hemorrhage also hits nearby enemies and grants 2 additional essence per enemy hit
- (2nd upgrade – don’t need any of the 2 but temporary you can use ) Initiate’s Hemorrhage – Hemorrhage grants 1.6% Base Life as Fortify each time it hits an enemy, and has a 1.5% chance per enemy hit to Fortify you for 100% Base Life.

Core Skill(s) (Resource Spender) (Required Points: 2 )

(active) Blood Surge – Draw blood from enemies, dealing 20% (X-?) damage, and expel a blood nova, dealing 50% (X-?) damage. Blood Surge’s nova damage is increased by 10% (multiplicative) per enemy drained, up to 50% (multiplicative). Lucky Hit Chance: 20% Essence Cost: 30 Damage: Physical ; Tags: Core, Blood
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Blood Surge – Blood Surge heals you for 1% of your maximum Life when drawing blood from enemies. If 4 or more enemies are drawn from, then Heal for an additional 1.0% of your Maximum Life.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Supernatural Blood Surge – Each time an enemy is hit by Blood Surge’s nova, you are Fortified for 1% Base Life. While you have Fortify for over 50% of your Maximum Life, Blood Surge deals 20% (multiplicative) increased damage.
(passive) Hewed Flesh – Lucky Hit: Your damage has up to a 4%/8%/12% chance to create a corpse at the target’s location.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Core passives to save points

Macabre Skills (Required Points: 6 )

(active) Corpse Explosion – Detonate a Corpse, dealing 75% (X-XX) damage to nearby enemies. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Damage: Physical ; Tags: Corpse, Corruption
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Corpse – Corpse Explosion’s radius is increased by 15%.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Plagued Corpse Explosion – Corpse Explosion deals 10% (multiplicative) increased damage to enemies that are Slowed, Stunned or Vulnerable. These damage bonuses can stack.

(active) Blood Mist – Disperse into a bloody mist, becoming Immune for 3 seconds. Your Movement Speed is reduced by 20.00% and you periodically deal 2% (X-?) damage to enemies, healing for 0.5% of your Maximum Life. Lucky Hit Chance: 9% Cooldown: 20 Seconds. Damage: Physical ; Tags: Macabre, Blood
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Blood Mist – Casting a Skill that Overpowers reduces the cooldown of Blood Mist by 2 seconds.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Ghastly Blood Mist – Blood Mist leaves behind a Corpse every 0.95 seconds.
(passive) Grim Harvest – Consuming a Corpse generates 3/6/9 Essence.
- (upgrade) Fueled by Death – You deal 4%/8%/12% (multiplicative) increased damage for 4 seconds after consuming a Corpse.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Macabre passives to save points

Corruption Skills (Required Points: 11 )

(active) DID NOT TAKE a Corruption active due to using 2 minions on the skillbar
- (1st upgrade)
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2)
(passive) Death’s Embrace – Enemies in melee range take 2%/4%/6% (multiplicative) more damage from you and deal 3%/6%/9% less damage to you.
(passive) Skeletal Mage Mastery – Increase the damage and Health of your Skeletal Mages by 15%/30%/45% (multiplicative).
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Corruption passives to save points

Summoning Skills (Required Points: 16 )

(active) Corpse Tendrils – Veins burst out of a Corpse, pulling in enemies, Stunning them for 3 seconds, and dealing 20% (X-?) damage to them. Lucky Hit Chance: 20% Cooldown: 11.0 Seconds. Damage: Physical ; Tags: Corpse, Corruption
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Corpse Tendrils – Enemies who are in range of Corpse Tendrils are Slowed by 50% before being pulled.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Horrid Corpse Tendrils – Enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils are made Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
(passive – only put 1 point into this) Gruesome Mending – While below 50% Life, you receive +10%/+20%/+30% more Healing from all sources.
- (upgrade) Coalesced Blood – While Healthy your Blood Skills deal 6%/12%/18% (multiplicative) increased damage. Note: Need to invest into this node to unlock BOTH Tides of Blood & Drain Vitality
- (upgrade) Transfusion – DID NOT INVEST in this to save points
- (upgrade) Drain Vitality – Lucky Hit: Hitting enemies with Blood Skills has up to 25% chance to Fortify you for 2%/5%/8% Base Life.
- (upgrade) Tides of Blood – Your Blood Skills deal 5%/10%/15% (multiplicative) increased Overpower damage. This bonus is doubled while you are Healthy.
(passive) Necrotic Carapace – When a Corpse is formed from your Skills or your Minions, Fortify for 2%/4%/6% Base Life.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Summoning passives to save points

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

(active) Blood Wave – Conjure a tidal wave of blood that deals 90% (X-?) damage and knocks enemies back. Lucky Hit Chance: 30% Cooldown: 50 Seconds. Damage: Physical ; Tags: Ultimate, Blood
- (1st upgrade) Prime Blood Wave – Blood Wave Slows enemies by 50% for 4 seconds.
- (2nd upgrade) Supreme Blood Wave – Blood Wave leaves behind 3 Blood Orbs as it travels.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in any Ultimate passives to save points

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Rathma’s Vigor – Increase your maximum Life by 10%. After being Healthy for 15 seconds, your next Blood Skill Overpowers.

Book of the Dead (Class Mechanic):

This build is all about creating as many corpses as possible and consuming them with Corpse Explosion directly or with the auto-cast via Blood Mist. For that we don’t need minions as much. However, there’s no room for a basics kill on the skillbar so we’ll use Cold Mages to generate essence in case there are no corpses nearby to consume for essence.

I’d advise taking only Cold Skeletal Mages for this build & Sacrifice the Skeletal Warriors & Golem. The types + upgrades/sacrifices are:

Skeletal Skirmishers: Sacrifice so that we get extra Crit Chance
- Description: Your critical strike chance is increased by 5%, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Warriors.
Cold Mages: Upgrade 1 is amazing to get our Essence generation going even if we don’t have a corpse to consume to trigger the Grim Harvest passive
- Description: Each time your Cold Mages damage enemies with their primary attack, you gain 2 essence.
Iron Golem: Sacrifice so that we get extra Crit Damage
- Description: You deal 30% (multiplicative) increased critical strike damage, but you lose the ability to summon a Golem.

Unique Item

Black River (Scythe)

[0.06] Life On Kill

Corpse Explosion consumes up to 4 additional Corpses around the initial Corpse, dealing x[N] increased damage and with a +[X%] larger radius per additional Corpse.

[49 – 63] Intelligence
+[21 – 35]% Damage to Healthy Enemies
+1 Ranks of the Fueled by Death Passive
+[2 – 4] Ranks of Corpse Explosion

“The scrolls describe a river of tar that separated the living from the land of the dead. Any unfortunate soul who tried to cross would be dragged down into oblivion.” – Notes of Scholar Kamien

Sockets & Gems

There are various possible good/viable choices for the gem slots. I’ve shortlisted what works by slot. I’d recommend picking one of those:

Weps: Ruby, Saphire, Skull or Emerald.
Armor: Skull, or Saphire.
Jewelry: Diamond unless you need specific resistance more than all.

XYZ Diamond (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Ultimate Skill Damage
• Armor: +N% Barrier Generation
• Jewelry: N% Resistance to All Elements

+5%/+5%/5 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Skull (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N Life On Kill
• Armor: +N% Healing Received
• Jewelry: +N Armor

+13/+5%/+170 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Ruby (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Overpower Damage
• Armor: +N% Maximum Life
• Jewelry: N% Fire Resistance

+15%/+5.5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Emerald (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
• Armor: +N Thorns
• Jewelry: N% Poison Resistance

+7.5%/39/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

Legendary Aspects / Powers

Helm: Exploiter’s Aspect
Amulet: Aspect of Grasping Veins
Chest: Viscous Aspect
Pants: Aspect of the Embalmer
Gloves: Blood-bathed Aspect
Boots: Coldbringer’s Aspect
Ring 1: Aspect of Explosive Mist
Ring 2: Blood-soaked Aspect
1H Weapon: *Edgemaster’s Aspect Until The Unique goes here (see notes below)
Off-hand: Cadaverous Aspect
2-H Weapon (if you decide to use one): *see notes below

NOTE: Edgemaster's Aspect is a great choice to use Until The Unique goes on that 1-handed weapon slot.

NOTE 2: If you temporarily use a 2-handed weapon before you get the 1-h unique Scythe, then priority goes to Cadaverous Aspect over Edgemaster's Aspect

Paragon Boards:

Use the links below to check the paragon boards selected and the nodes I’ve taken. One link is for what the boards will look like at lvl 96 without any paragon points from renown (so more paragon points will be obtained on the way to 100 as well as from renown. The other link will be what the boards will look like when fully maxed out on paragon points.

LVL 96 & no Points from renown: Click THIS LINK
MAXed out points: Click THIS LINK

Suggested Gear Rolls to look out for (NOT in complete order of priority):

I’ve shortlisted 33 different affixes that work well with the build of almost 300 total. I’ll highlight in Orange the ones I think should get higher priority

Bonus to All Damage
Critical Strike Chance/Critical Strike Damage Bonus
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Blood Skills
Critical Strike Chance/Critical Strike Damage with Core/Macabre Skills
Damage with Core/Macabre Skills
Lucky Hit Chance
+ X Ranks to Core/Macabre Skills
Overpower Damage
Blood Damage Bonus
Lucky Hit Chance with Blood Damage
Resistance to All Elements
Cooldown Reduction
+ % Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Blood Damage
+ % Damage to Elites
+ % Blood Damage to Elites
Damage Upon Killing an Elite
+ % Critical Strike Chance with Blood Damage Against Elites
Damage Reduction for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
+ % Damage for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction from Elites

Higher Priority

+ % Minion Damage
+ % Damage to Enemies affected by Blood DoT
+ % Minion Resistance to All Elements
+ % Minion Attack Speed
+ % Maximum Minion Life
Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes From Your Minions Have up to a 5% Chance to Reduce Enemy Damage Dealt by X% for N Seconds

Bonus: Only worth it If the minions are not nerfed too much.

+ All Stats
Damage while Healthy
Damage vs Healthy Enemies
Damage vs Injured Enemies
Damage vs Close Enemies
Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)
Essence Generation
Essence Regeneration
Essence On Kill
Movement Speed
Attack Speed
Intelligence
Resource Cost Reduction

Lower Priority

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

For all of my Diablo IV RDY-4-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

For my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Class Skill Trees (can be used as mini-calculator): This Spreadsheet

For all of my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

This concludes the Mistplosion Necromancer Build for Diablo IV. If you’re interested in the game below are links to the various platforms where one can buy it (you can just click the links to open a new tab):

PC (Battle.Net)

Reaping Army 2.0 Diablo IV Necromancer Build [RDY-4-Launch]

Reaping Army 2.0 Necromancer BUILD for Diablo IV [RDY-4-Launch]

(control an Army of Undead and get bonuses based on the number of summoned Minions)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

Diablo IV launches on June 6th, 2023 for PC (Battle.Net), XBOX, & PlayStation with a 4 days Early Access (no wipe) for pre-orders (so kind of really launching June 2nd).

Diablo IV‘s Launch is getting closer and it’s time to make some Ready-For-Launch full Builds/Theorycrafts that should be good for both ‘fresh-into-endgame’ characters as well as late endgame. I’ also plan to evolve them further when the game is released & keep them updated when we get rebalance updates. This is one such build for the Necromancer Class called Reaping Army 2.0.

I’ve also made spreadsheets for those builds (see the links below) that have shortlisted the active and passive skills + legendary aspect + unique item + gems & sockets + suggested stat rolls + paragon boards that work well with the build which you can use to tinker. Alternatively i’ve added build calculator links (mostly needed for the paragons)

This build will be updated post-launch to a new & expanded version when I have more in-game information as reference.

Video Version:

Skill Trees

Below you’ll see ONLY the Active & Passive skills that were selected for this build. For additional skills that can be taken + alternative skill options, you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Reaping Army 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Basic Skill (Resource Generator/Builder) (Required Points: 0 )

(active) Decompose – Tear the flesh from the enemy, dealing 30% (X) damage per second and forming a usable corpse with the flesh every 2.5 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Generates: 7 Essence per second Damage: X ; Tags:
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Decompose – If an enemy dies while being Decomposed, you gain 10 Essence.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Acolyte’s Decompose – You and your Minions deal 10% (multiplicative) increased damage to enemies who are being Decomposed.

Core Skill(s) (Resource Spender) (Required Points: 2 )

(active) Sever – A spectre of you charges forward and attacks with its scythe for 42% (X) damage then returns to you and attacks again for 21% (X-?) damage. Lucky Hit Chance: 20% Essence Cost: 20 Damage: X ; Tags:
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Sever – Sever damages enemies along its path for 25% of its damage.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Supernatural Sever – Sever deals 2% (multiplicative) increased damage for each Minion you have upon cast.
(passive) Hewed Flesh Lucky Hit: Your damage has up to a 4%/8%/12% chance to create a corpse at the target’s location.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Core passives to save points

Macabre Skills (Required Points: 6 )

(active) Corpse Explosion – Detonate a Corpse, dealing 75% (X-XX) damage to nearby enemies. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Damage: X ; Tags:
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Corpse – Corpse Explosion’s radius is increased by 15%.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Blighted Corpse Explosion – Corpse Explosion becomes a Darkness Skill and, instead of exploding, releases a vile miasma dealing 110% (X-?) Shadow Damage over 6 seconds.
(passive) Grim Harvest Consuming a Corpse generates 3/6/9 Essence.
- (upgrade) Fueled by Death You deal 4%/8%/12% (multiplicative) increased damage for 4 seconds after consuming a Corpse.
(passive) Skeletal Warrior Mastery Increase the damage and Life of your Skeletal Warriors by 15%/30%/45% (multiplicative).
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Macabre passives to save points

Corruption Skills (Required Points: 11 )

(active) DID NOT TAKE a Corruption active due to using 2 minions on the skillbar
- (1st upgrade)
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2)
(passive) Skeletal Mage Mastery – Increase the damage and Health of your Skeletal Mages by 15%/30%/45% (multiplicative).
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Corruption passives to save points

Summoning Skills (Required Points: 16 )

(active) DID NOT TAKE a Summoning active due to using 2 minions on the skillbar
- (1st upgrade)
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2)
(passive) Reaper’s Pursuit – Damaging enemies with Darkness Skills increases your Movement Speed by +5%/+10%/+15% for 3 seconds.
- (upgrade) Crippling Darkness – DID NOT INVEST in this to save points
- (upgrade) Gloom – When you damage enemies with Darkness Skills, they take 2%/4%/6% (multiplicative) increased Shadow Damage from you and your Minions for 2 seconds, stacking up to 3 times.
- (upgrade) Terror – Darkness Skills deal 3%/6%/9% (multiplicative) bonus damage to enemies who are Slowed, and 3%/6%/9% (multiplicative) bonus damage to enemies who are Stunned or Immobilized. These bonuses stack and apply to Shadow Damage dealt by your Minions.
(passive) Necrotic Carapace – When a Corpse is formed from your Skills or your Minions, Fortify for 2%/4%/6% Base Life.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Summoning passives to save points

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

(active) Army of the Dead – Call forth the deep buried dead. Volatile Skeletons emerge over the next 7 seconds that explode when around enemies, dealing 30% (X-?) damage. Lucky Hit Chance: 54% Cooldown: 90 Seconds. Damage: X ; Tags:
- (1st upgrade) Prime Army of the Dead – When Army of the Dead’s Volatile Skeletons explode, they have 15% chance to leave behind a Corpse.
- (2nd upgrade) Supreme Army of the Dead – Army of the Dead also raises your Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages.
(passive) Bonded in Essence Every 5 seconds, your Skeletal Priest’s Healing will Heal your skeletons for 20%/40%/60% of their Maximum Life.
- (upgrade) Death’s Defense Your Minions can’t lose more than 75%/50%/25% of their maximum Life from a single damage instance.
(passive) Golem Mastery Increase the damage and Life of your Golem by 15%/30%/45% (multiplicative).
(passive) Inspiring Leader After you have been Healthy for at least 4 seconds, you and your Minions gain +4%/+8%/+12% Attack Speed. (seems to need a point in Death’s Defene to unlock this)
- (upgrade) Hellbent Commander Your Minions deal 10%/20%/30% (multiplicative) increased damage while you are near them.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Ultimate passives to save points

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Kalan’s Edict – After you have not taken damage in the last 3 seconds, your Minions gain +15% Attack Speed. While you have at least 7 Minions, this bonus is doubled.

Book of the Dead (Class Mechanic):

This build is all about taking as many summons as possible without sacrificing any of them for passive bonuses. I’d advise taking all minions for this build and the types + upgrades are: Skeletal Skirmishers: Upgrade 1 + Shadow Mages: Upgrade 2 + Bone Golem: Upgrade 2 (OR Iron Golem – Sacrifice):

Skeletal Skirmishers + Upgrade 1 so that we get and extra minion to boost the damage of Sever and other things that scale from the number of minions
- Description: You can raise an additional Skirmisher
Shadow Mages + Upgrade 2 is a good dps increase & goes especially well with Minion Attack Speed bonuses
- Description: Shadow Mages fire an additional shadow bolt every 6th attack.
Bone Golem + Upgrade 2 will let big boi tank for us and keep the aggro away from us oftentimes. Alternatively, if you want even more DPS, Iron Golem – Sacrifice can help
- Description: Your Golem gains 10% maximum Life and the amount of Thorns they inherit from you is increased from 30% to 50%.

Unique Item

Ring of Mendeln (Ring)

[6 – 35]% Cold Resistance
[6 – 35]% Shadow Resistance

While you have 7 or more Minions you gain: Lucky Hit: Up to a 10% chance to empower all of your Minions, causing the next attack from each to explode for N Physical damage.

+[4 – 10]% Lucky Hit Chance
+[7 – 14]% Minion Attack Speed
[17.5 – 31.5]% Maximum Minion Life
+[0.14 – 0.28] Thorns

The signet of Mendeln ul-Diomed, the founder of the Priests of Rathma and the first Necromancer, was lost for over 3,000 years. The immense power over death held within, however, has not diminished.

Sockets & Gems

Full Diamonds is a good fit for many builds, but this one doesn’t do much barrier. I’d recommend doing for Weps: Diamond, Skull, Amethyst or Emerald. For Armor: Skull, Amethyst or Emerald. For Jewelry: Diamond unless you need specific resistance more than all.

XYZ Diamond (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Ultimate Skill Damage
• Armor: +N% Barrier Generation
• Jewelry: N% Resistance to All Elements

+5%/+5%/5 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Skull (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N Life On Kill
• Armor: +N% Healing Received
• Jewelry: +N Armor

+13/+5%/+170 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Amethyst (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Damage Over Time
• Armor: N% Damage Taken Over Time Reduction
• Jewelry: N% Shadow Resistance

+5%/+8.2%/+14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Emerald (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
• Armor: +N Thorns
• Jewelry: N% Poison Resistance

+7.5%/39/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

Legendary Aspects / Powers

I will only list the Legendary Aspects that have been selected for the build and the slots in which I advise putting those. For in-depth information you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Reaping Army 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Helm: Viscous Aspect
Amulet: Aspect of Empowering Reaper
Chest: Blood Getter’s Aspect
Pants: Aspect of Hardened Bones
Gloves: Cadaverous Aspect
Boots: Exploiter’s Aspect
Ring 1: Aspect of Frenzied Dead
Ring 2: *Aspect of Reanimation Until *The Unique goes here
1H Weapon: Unyielding Commander’s Aspect
Off-hand: Rotting Aspect
2-H Weapon (if you decide to use one):Unyielding Commander’s Aspect

NOTE: Aspect of Reanimation is a great choice for Until The Unique goes on that 2nd ring slot. Alternatively, you can put another Resource generation or Offensive Aspect such as: Aspect of Flesh-Rending, Requiem Aspect, Hulking Aspect, Edgemaster's Aspect, Aspect of Inner Calm

Paragon Boards:

Use the links below to check the paragon boards selected and the nodes I’ve taken. One link is for what the boards will look like at lvl 99 without any paragon points from renown (so more paragon points will be obtained on the way to 100 as well as from renown. The other link will be what the boards will look like when fully maxed out on paragon points.

LVL 99 & no Points from renown: Click THIS LINK
MAXed out points: Click THIS LINK

Suggested Gear Rolls to look out for (NOT in order of priority):

I’ve shortlisted 38 different affixes that work well with the build of almost 300 total. I’ll highlight in Orange the ones I think should get higher priority

Bonus to All Damage
Critical Strike Damage Bonus
Critical Strike Chance
Critical Strike Damage with Core Skills
Damage with Core Skills
Lucky Hit Chance
Shadow Damage Bonus
Shadow Critical Strike Damage Bonus
Resistance to All Elements
Cooldown Reduction
+ % Critical Strike Chance with Shadow Damage
+ % Damage to Elites
+ % Shadow Damage to Elites
Damage Upon Killing an Elite
+ % Critical Strike Chance with Shadow Damage Against Elites
Damage Reduction for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
+ % Damage for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction from Elites
+ % Minion Damage
+ % Damage to Enemies affected by Shadow DoT
+ % Minion Resistance to All Elements
+ % Minion Attack Speed
+ % Maximum Minion Life

High Priority

Amplify_Damage_From_Pets_Per_Player_Percent (Struck’s note: my guess is this is + % Minion Damage based on the player’s % Damage)
Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes From Your Minions Have up to a 5% Chance to Reduce Enemy Damage Dealt by X% for N Seconds
+ All Stats
Damage while Healthy
Damage vs Healthy Enemies
Damage vs Injured Enemies
Damage vs Close Enemies
Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)
Essence Generation
Essence Regeneration
Essence On Kill
Movement Speed
Attack Speed
Intelligence
Resource Cost Reduction

Low Priority

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

For all of my Diablo IV RDY-4-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

For my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Class Skill Trees (can be used as mini-calculator): This Spreadsheet

For all of my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

This concludes the Reaping Army 2.0 Necromancer Build for Diablo IV. If you’re interested in the game below are links to the various platforms where one can buy it (you can just click the links to open a new tab):

PC (Battle.Net)

Hemomancer Diablo IV Necromancer Build

Hemomancer Necromancer BUILD for Diablo IV

(the Hemomancer will bleed you dry and consume your vitality to keep themselves Healthy)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

Diablo IV launches on June 6th, 2023 for PC (Battle.Net), XBOX, & PlayStation with a 4 days Early Access (no wipe) for pre-orders (so kind of really launching June 2nd).

Diablo IV’s Open Beta Tests are almost here and I felt motivated to make some Pre-Launch theorycrafted semi-builds that should be good for ‘fresh-into-endgame’ characters when the game launches. I also plan to evolve them into FULL builds when the game is released & keep them updated when we get rebalance updates. This is one such build for the Necromancer Class called Hemomancer. (you can call it Mrs. or Ms. bones if suits you better

The Beta tests will only let us reach lvl 25 and only let us play in the first Act/Zone (Fractured Peaks) so those builds will be more useful for the actual game launch and ideally for characters around lvl 50+ or 60+. I’ve used 50+ and 60+ skill points when making the builds instead of the full 100 so that they can be used to jumpstart a player’s post-story endgame grind.

I’ve also made spreadsheets for those builds (see the links below) that have shortlisted the active and passive skills + legendary aspect that work well with the build so one can spend the extra skill points on the way to lvl 100 into those other skills.

This build will be updated post-launch to a new & expanded version when I have actual in-game information as reference.

Video Version:

Skill Trees

Below you’ll see ONLY the Active & Passive skills that were selected for this build. For additional skills that can be taken on the way to lvl 100 + alternative skill options, you can check my pre-launch builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Hemomancer) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

The images you see are PLACEHOLDERS due to lack of any real skill icons leaks for the Necromancer class. I will replace them once the Beta starts and I can screenshot the actual icons.

Basic Skill (Resource Generator/Builder) (Required Points: 0 )

(active) Hemorrhage – Burst an enemy’s blood, dealing 25.00% (X-XX) damage. Hemorrhage has 20% chance to form a Blood Orb. Blood Orbs heal you for 15% of your maximum Life when picked up. Generates: 7 Essence Damage: Physical
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Hemorrhage – After picking up a Blood Orb, your next Hemorrhage also hits nearby enemies and grants 2 additional essence per enemy hit
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Initiate’s Hemorrhage – Hemorrhage grants X Fortify each time it hits and enemy, and had a 1.5% chance per enemy hit to Fortify you.

Core Skill(s) (Resource Spender) (Required Points: 2 )

(active) Blood Surge – Draw blood from enemies, dealing 20.00% (X-?) damage, and expel a blood nova, dealing 50.00% (X-?) damage. Blood Surge’s nova damage is increased by 10% (multiplicative) per enemy drained, up to 50% (multiplicative). Essence Cost: 30 Damage: Physical
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Blood Surge – Blood Surge heals you for 1% of your maximum Life per each enemy drained, up to 5%.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Supernatural Blood Surge – Each time an enemy is hit by Blood Surge’s nova, you are Fortified for X.
(passive) Unliving Energy – Your maximum Essence is increased by 3.
- (1st upgrade) did not pick to save points
(passive) Reconstitution – Your damage has up to a 4% chance to create a corpse at the target’s location.

Macabre Skills (Required Points: 6 ) I took two Macabre active skills

(active) Blood Mist – Disperse into a bloody mist, becoming Immune for 3 seconds. Your Movement Speed is reduced by 50.00% and you periodically deal 1.75 (X-X) damage to enemies, healing for 100% of the damage dealt. Cooldown: 19 Seconds.
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Blood Mist – Blood Mist’s Movement Speed penalty is reduced to 20%.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Ghastly Blood Mist – Blood Mist leaves behind a Corpse every 1 second.
(passive – only put 1 point here to unlock the upgrade) Grim Harvest – Consuming a Corpse generates 3 Essence.
- (upgrade) Fueled by Death – You deal 4% (multiplicative) increased damage for 4 seconds after consuming a Corpse.
(passive – only put 1 point here & it’s optional) Necrotic Carapace – When a Corpse is formed from your Skills or your Minions, Fortify for X.

(active) Bone Prison – Unearth a prison of bone with X Life that surrounds the target area for 6 seconds. Cooldown: 20 Seconds.
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Bone Prison – Gain 3 Essence each time an enemy hits your Bone Prison.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Dreadful Bone Prison – Fortify for X for each enemy trapped by Bone Prison.

Corruption Skills (Required Points: 11 ) DID NOT pick a Corruption skill but you can remove Bone Prison and pick Iron Maiden

(active 1) Iron Maiden – Curse the target area. Enemies afflicted by Iron Maiden take 10.00% (X-XX) damage each time they deal direct damage. Lasts 10 seconds. Essence Cost: 10 Damage: Physical
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Iron Maiden – Iron Maiden no longer costs Essence. Instead, gain 5 Essence for each enemy Cursed. Does not work with enemies already cursed with Iron Maiden.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Abhorrent Iron Maiden – Heal for 5% of your maximum Life when an enemy dies while afflicted with Iron Maiden.
(passive) did not invest into Corruption passives to save points

Summoning Skills (Required Points: 16 )

(active) Corpse Tendrils – Veins burst out of a Corpse, pulling in enemies, Stunning them for 3 seconds, and dealing 20.00% (X-?) damage to them. Cooldown: 11.0 Seconds. Damage: Physical
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Corpse Tendrils – Enemies who are in range of Corpse Tendrils are Slowed by 50% before being pulled.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Abhorrent Corpse Tendrils – Enemies slain while Stunned by Corpse Tendrils have a 25% chance to drop a Blood Orb.
(passive) Blood Begets Blood – While below 50% Life, you receive 10% more healing from all sources.
- (upgrade 1 DID NOT INVEST in this to save points) Tides of Blood – Your Blood Skills deal 5% increased (multiplicative) Overpower damage. This bonus is doubled while you are Healthy.
- (upgrade 2) Coalesced Blood – Blood Orbs heal you for 15% more.
- (upgrade 3 DID NOT INVEST in this to save points) Drain Vitality – Hitting enemies with Blood Skills has up to 25% chance to Fortify you for X.
- (upgrade 4) Transfusion – Blood Orbs also heal your Minions for 15% of the amount.
(passive) did not invest into Summoning passives to save points

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

(active) Blood Wave – Conjure a tidal wave of blood that deals 90.00% (X-XX) damage and knocks enemies back. Cooldown: 50.0 Seconds. Damage: Physical
(1st upgrade) Prime Blood Wave – Blood Wave Slows enemies by 50% for 4 seconds.
(2nd upgrade) Supreme Blood Wave – Blood Wave leaves behind 3 Blood Orbs as it travels.
(passive- ONLY PUT 1 LEVEL here to save points & to unlock the upgrade) Stand Alone – Increases Damage Reduction by 6%, reduced by 2% for each active Minion.
- (upgrade) Memento Mori – Sacrificing both Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages increases their Sacrifice bonuses by 20%.
(passive) Golem Mastery – Increase the damage and Life of your Golem by 15%
(passive) did not invest into Ultimate passives to save points but there are some nice options

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Rathma’s Vigor – Increase your maximum Life by 10%. While Healtthy, you deal 25% (multiplicative) increased damage

Book of the Dead (Class Mechanic):

This build is all about doing as much shadow dmg hits as possible and focuses on ranged DPS. Sacrificing our melee minions might make it hard by not having a “tank” but it also boosts our dps in a lovely way. As for the types I picked, I’d recommend as follows:

Skeletal Reapers + Sacrifice is what we take for the bonus dps
- Description: Your critical strike chance is increased by 5%, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Warriors.
Shadow Mages + Sacrifice is a lovely build synergy
- Description: Your maximum essence is increased by 15, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Mages.
Iron Golem + Sacrifice is what we take for the bonus dps
- Description: You deal 30% (multiplicative) increased critical strike damage, but you lose the ability to summon a Golem.

Legendary Aspects / Powers

I will only list the Legendary Aspects that have been selected for the build and the slots in which I advise putting those. For in-depth information you can check my pre-launch builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Hemomancer) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Helm: Aspect of Potent Blood
Amulet: Aspect of Shared Misery
Chest: Fastblood Aspect
Pants: Aspect of Might
Gloves: Aspect of Pummeling
Boots: Aspect of Grasping Veins
Ring 1: Aspect of The Umbral
Ring 2: Aspect of Bursting Bones
1H Weapon: Aspect of Retribution
Off-hand: Blood-bathed Aspect
2-H Weapon (if you decide to use one): Aspect of Retribution

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

For all of my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

For my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Class Skill Trees (can be used as mini-calculator): This Spreadsheet

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

This concludes the Hemomancer Necromancer Build for Diablo IV. If you’re interested in the game below are links to the various platforms where one can buy it (you can just click the links to open a new tab):

PC (Battle.Net)

Mr. Bones Diablo IV Necromancer Build

Mr. Bones Necromancer BUILD for Diablo IV

(Mr. Bones locks enemies in a prison, curses & showers them with spears & splinters to collect essence)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

Diablo IV launches on June 6th, 2023 for PC (Battle.Net), XBOX, & PlayStation with a 4 days Early Access (no wipe) for pre-orders (so kind of really launching June 2nd).

Diablo IV’s Open Beta Tests are almost here and I felt motivated to make some Pre-Launch theorycrafted semi-builds that should be good for ‘fresh-into-endgame’ characters when the game launches. I also plan to evolve them into FULL builds when the game is released & keep them updated when we get rebalance updates. This is one such build for the Necromancer Class called Mr. Bones. (you can call it Mrs. or Ms. bones if suits you better

This build will be updated post-launch to a new & expanded version when I have actual in-game information as reference.

Video Version:

Skill Trees

Below you’ll see ONLY the Active & Passive skills that were selected for this build. For additional skills that can be taken on the way to lvl 100 + alternative skill options, you can check my pre-launch builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Reaping Army) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

The images you see are PLACEHOLDERS due to lack of any real skill icons leaks for the Necromancer class. I will replace them once the Beta starts and I can screenshot the actual icons.

Basic Skill (Resource Generator/Builder) (Required Points: 0 )

(active) Bone Splinters – Fire 3 bone splinters, dealing 22.50% (X-?) damage each. Each subsequent time an enemy is hit by the same cast of Bone Splinters, you gain 1 Essence. Generates: 5 Essence Damage: Physical
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Bone Splinters – Bone Splinters has a 30% chance to fire 2 additional projectiles if cast while you have 50 or more essence.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Initiate’s Bone Splinters – Bone Splinters has a 20% chance per hit to make enemies Vulernable for 2 seconds.

Core Skill(s) (Resource Spender) (Required Points: 2 )

(active) Bone Spear – Conjure a Bone Spear from the ground, dealing 85.00% (X-?) damage and Piercing through enemies. Essence Cost: 25 Damage: Physical
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Bone Spear – Bone Spear breaks into shards when it is destroyed, dealing 10.00% (X-?) damage each.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Paranormal Bone Spear – Bone Spear has a 5% increased Critical Strike Chance and deals 10% (multiplicative) increased Critical Strike Damage.
(passive) Unliving Energy – Your maximum Essence is increased by 3.
- (1st upgrade) did not pick to save points
(passive – SEE NOTE) Reconstitution – Your damage has up to a 4% chance to create a corpse at the target’s location. NOTE: I only took this for the No-golem version. If you take a Golem then you might need to drop this passive for the points.

Macabre Skills (Required Points: 6 )

(active) Bone Prison – Unearth a prison of bone with X Life that surrounds the target area for 6 seconds. Cooldown: 20 Seconds.
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Bone Prison – Gain 3 Essence each time an enemy hits your Bone Prison.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Ghastly Bone Prison – Enemies inside of Bone Prison are Vulnerable.
(passive) Grim Harvest – Consuming a Corpse generates 3 Essence.
- (upgrade) Fueled by Death – You deal 4% (multiplicative) increased damage for 4 seconds after consuming a Corpse.
(passive) did not invest into other Macabre passives to save points

Corruption Skills (Required Points: 11 )

(active 1) Iron Maiden – Curse the target area. Enemies afflicted by Iron Maiden take 10.00% (X-XX) damage each time they deal direct damage. Lasts 10 seconds. Essence Cost: 10 Damage: Physical
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Iron Maiden – Iron Maiden no longer costs Essence. Instead, gain 5 Essence for each enemy Cursed. Does not work with enemies already cursed with Iron Maiden.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Abhorrent Iron Maiden – Heal for 5% of your maximum Life when an enemy dies while afflicted with Iron Maiden.
(passive – SEE NOTE) Amplify Damage – You deal 3% increased damage to Cursed enemies. NOTE: I only took this for the No-golem version. If you take a Golem then you might need to drop this passive for the points.
(passive) did not invest into other Corruption passives to save points

Summoning Skills (Required Points: 16 )

(active) Bone Spirit – Consume all of your Essence to conjure a spirit of bone that seeks enemies. Upon reaching an enemy, the spirit explodes, dealing 80.00% (X-XX) damage to the target and all nearby enemies. Damage is increased by 3% for each point of Essence spent casting Bone Spirit. Cooldown: 12.0 Seconds. Essence Cost: All remaining Essence Damage: Physical
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Bone Spirit – If Bone Spirit Critically Strikes, its cooldown is reduced by 6 seconds. This effect can only happen once per cast.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Dreadful Bone Spirit – After Bone Spirit hits an enemy, you generate 30 Essence over the next 4 seconds.
(passive) Serration – Your Bone Skills have a 0.5% increased Critical Strike Chance for 10 Essence you have upon cast
- (upgrade 1 DID NOT INVEST in this to save points) Rapid Ossification – Every 100 Essence you spend reduces the cooldowns of your Bone Skills by 0.5 seconds.
- (upgrade 2) Compound Fracture – After Critically Striking 10 times with Bone Skills, your Bone Skills deal 6% (multiplicative) increased damage for 5 seconds.
- (upgrade 3) Evulsion – Your Bone Skills deal 6% (multiplicative) increased Criticial Strike Damage to Vulnerable enemies.

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

(active) Bone Storm – A swirling storm of bones surrounds you and your Golem, dealing 180.00% (X-XX) to nearby enemies over 10 seconds.
(1st upgrade) Prime Bone Storm – Your Damage Reduction is increased by 15% while Bone Storm is active.
(2nd upgrade) Supreme Bone Storm – While Bone Storm is active, you consume nearby Corpses. Each Corpse consumed adds 2 seconds to Bone Storm’s duration, up to 10 seconds.
(passive- ONLY PUT 1 LEVEL here to save points & to unlock the upgrade) Stand Alone – Increases Damage Reduction by 6%, reduced by 2% for each active Minion.
- (upgrade) Memento Mori – Sacrificing both Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages increases their Sacrifice bonuses by 20%.
(passive – SEE NOTE) Bonded in Essence – Your Minions gain 15% of your Resistances. NOTE: I DID NOT take this BUT If you take a Golem then you might want to put 3 points here.
- (upgrade – SEE NOTE) Death’s Defense – Your Minions can’t lose more than 50% of their maximum Life from a single damage instance. NOTE: I DID NOT take this BUT If you take a Golem then you might want to put 1 point here.
(passive – SEE NOTE) Bonded in Essence – Your Minions gain 15% of your Resistances. NOTE: I DID NOT take this BUT If you take a Golem then you might want to put 3 points here.

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Ossified Essence – Your Bone Skills deal 1% (multiplicative) increased damage for each point of Essence you have above 50% upon cast.

Book of the Dead (Class Mechanic):

Skeletal Reapers + Sacrifice is what we take for the bonus dps
- Description: Your critical strike chance is increased by 5%, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Warriors.
Shadow Mages + Sacrifice is a lovely build synergy
- Description: Your maximum essence is increased by 15, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Mages.
Iron Golem + Sacrifice is what we take for the bonus dps
- Description: You deal 30% (multiplicative) increased critical strike damage, but you lose the ability to summon a Golem.

Legendary Aspects / Powers

I will only list the Legendary Aspects that have been selected for the build and the slots in which I advise putting those. For in-depth information you can check my pre-launch builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Mr. Bones) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Helm: Aspect of Potent Blood
Amulet: Sacrificial Aspect
Chest: Aspect of Torment
Pants: Aspect of Might
Gloves: Rapid Aspect
Boots: Ghostwalker Aspect
Ring 1: Aspect of Bursting Bones
Ring 2: Aspect of Swelling Curse
1H Weapon: Edgemaster’s Aspect
Off-hand: Aspect of The Expectant
2-H Weapon (if you decide to use one): Edgemaster’s Aspect

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

For all of my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

For my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Class Skill Trees (can be used as mini-calculator): This Spreadsheet

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

This concludes the Mr. Bones Necromancer Build for Diablo IV. If you’re interested in the game below are links to the various platforms where one can buy it (you can just click the links to open a new tab):

PC (Battle.Net)